By Sarah Eno

For the Herald

    June 22, 2003, marked the 60th anniversary of the disappearance of a young WWII Anglo-Argentine pilot, Lt. James Stanley Watt. Lost on a night mission, he was reported to have gone down while crossing the North Sea. "Missing In Action" (MIA) was the official conclusion of the Royal Air Force (RAF). But Watt's brother, Frank, who was also a pilot in the RAF, and currently resides in Buenos Aires, never gave up the belief that his younger sibling had made it into German territory before disappearing.

    He didn't. But thanks to some nifty detective work by two Argentine researchers, Frank Watt now knows his brother did make it to land. Deep in the Alphen woods outside of Tilburg, Holland, Claudio Meunier, official historian of Argentine Veterans of the RAF, and Oscar Rimondi, aeronautical investigator, found the remains of Watt's Stirling aircraft, forever dispelling the official story that this young war hero had been lost over water to enemy fire.

    Lieutenant James Stanley Watt, DSO, DFC was born in Córdoba in 1920, raised in Buenos Aires, and trained in Canada before being commissioned, in 1941, as a volunteer in the RAF. He flew a Short Sterling Bomber [& more] in No. 7 Squadron based at Oakington, Cambridgeshire, and was twice decorated by King George VI for his heroic deeds, most notably when he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his successful navigation back to England, after having been hit by anti-aircraft fire over Düsseldorf.

    On the night of his disappearance, June 22/23, 1943, Watt's squadron was given a particularly difficult mission. They were to bomb the chemical plants and metal works in the industrial city of Krefeld. To reach their target, they had to fly over some of the Germans' heaviest artillery stationed in the ironically named "Happy Valley." Their job was to locate and fire on the plants thereby marking them for subsequent bombing. In order to get close enough, they had to fly between, not above the German artillery, and then, having marked the targets, they had to get out as quickly as possible to avoid the subsequent bombing.

    It was an ill-fated night for No. 7 squadron. While approaching the coast, three of its planes were shot down, the last of which was captained by Watt. Intercepted in the air by a young captain of the Luftwaffe named Walter Milius, Watt's aircraft was also hit from below by anti-aircraft artillery. When one of the engines caught fire Watt lost control of his aircraft.

    Watt's nephew (and Frank's son), Jimmy Watt, who resides in British Columbia, Canada, says: "My Uncle Jimmy was last seen by one of his surviving crew who managed to parachute when Jimmy gave the order to bail out. [This crew member saw him] trying to head his Stirling Bomber towards land, but lost sight of him over the North Sea."

    Remnants of the other two planes shot down were recovered, but Watt's was never found. The official verdict was that his plane had fallen before reaching German territory.

    Meunier, 33, who resides in Bahia Blanca [Argentina], was intrigued by the incongruity of the official report. He undertook to solve the mystery more than four years ago when he first "detected a shroud of silence surrounding the young officer's disappearance." Armed only with official documents describing the event and his fervent belief that Watt had been underestimated, he set out to crack the case.

    Assuming that Watt had indeed reached the coastline, Meunier and Rimondi concluded that descriptions of "the ostensible crash zone as it had been delineated in 1943 had to be discarded." They hypothesized that the actual crash zone was more likely near the town of Tilburg. Pursuing this hunch, they traveled to Holland where, together with Dutch partner Adriaan Van Riel, and equipped with metal detectors, the men took to the woods.

    Buried under 60 years worth of debris, they found remains which, after careful analysis, were confirmed to be those of Watt's aircraft. The scant artifacts were sent back to Argentina and donated to the Old Georgian's Club, a group of alumni of St George's School in Quilmes, where they are in the temporary custody of Geoffrey Edbrooke.

    The family is immensely satisfied, and proud. A long lost son has finally received the closest thing possible, after so many years, to a return to his rightful resting place.